Roine Wiklund

My research explores the intersections of industrial history, cultural heritage, and geopolitics, with a particular focus on Norrbotten as a long-term borderland and resource landscape. By examining large technical systems – from early mines and ironworks to the Iron Ore Line, the Porjus hydropower plant, and today’s green industrial transition – I show how infrastructure, energy, and logistics shape both societal development and everyday life. My work highlights how these megasystems emerge, evolve, and are repurposed over time, and how they intertwine with state strategies, international capital flows, and regional identities.

A central part of my research also concerns how people experience and interpret places undergoing major social and material transformations. Using concepts such as place attachment, left-behind places, and solastalgia, I investigate how identity and belonging are affected in landscapes where mines close, communities are relocated, or new industrial projects take shape. By combining academic analysis with heritage work, local history, and museum collaborations, I contribute to new ways of understanding, narrating, and activating industrial heritage in contemporary society.